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Where Can Wisdom Be Found?
Where Can Wisdom Be Found?
This chapter in the book of Job is an oddity. It really doesn’t appear to fit in with the discussions between Job and his friends. Many scholars doubt that Job could write such a poem. Scholars also disagree on where this chapter should be placed…here? somewhere else?
What matters most is that the Holy Spirit inspired this text and whoever the author is, God has superintended the process by which this chapter is found in our Bibles. First, it is a poem. Remember that Hebrew poetry is not based on rhyme and rhythm as most English poetry. Instead, Hebrew poetry consists of comparisons, contrasts, and word pictures such as similes and metaphors.
“Surely there is a mine for silver, And a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, And copper is smelted from ore. Man puts an end to darkness, And searches every recess For ore in the darkness and the shadow of death. He breaks open a shaft away from people; In places forgotten by feet They hang far away from men; They swing to and fro. As for the earth, from it comes bread, But underneath it is turned up as by fire; Its stones are the source of sapphires, And it contains gold dust. That path no bird knows, Nor has the falcon’s eye seen it. The proud lions have not trodden it, Nor has the fierce lion passed over it. He puts his hand on the flint; He overturns the mountains at the roots. He cuts out channels in the rocks, And his eye sees every precious thing. He dams up the streams from trickling; What is hidden he brings forth to light. “But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
This first section of the poem calls us to consider the significant power humans have over our environment. When God created Adam and Eve He gave them an assignment:
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
After the Fall (Genesis 3:1-7), God sent Adam and Eve out of the Garden to ‘work the ground from which he was taken (Gen 3:23).
In a series of word picture Job illustrates how much humans have done - digging mines for gold, silver and other ores and refining these precious metals into useable forms. Humans have dug deep into the earth and have gone places no animals dared to venture. Humans bring to light treasures that have never been seen before.
But, where is wisdom? In all human efforts there is no wisdom, no understanding.
“But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value, Nor is it found in the land of the living. The deep says, ‘It is not in me’; And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ It cannot be purchased for gold, Nor can silver be weighed for its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx or sapphire. Neither gold nor crystal can equal it, Nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or quartz, For the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, Nor can it be valued in pure gold.
Where can wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding? In vs 14 Job ‘quotes the voice of the deep and the ocean/sea declaring that wisdom is not found in them. Wisdom cannot be found in the land of the living! Where then can wisdom be found?
It cannot be purchased by even the finest metals. Pearls taken from the sea cannot purchase wisdom and understanding. It is impossible to calculate the value of wisdom and understanding in the ways humans determine value.
“From where then does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living, And concealed from the birds of the air. Destruction and Death say, ‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.’ God understands its way, And He knows its place. For He looks to the ends of the earth, And sees under the whole heavens, To establish a weight for the wind, And apportion the waters by measure. When He made a law for the rain, And a path for the thunderbolt, Then He saw wisdom and declared it; He prepared it, indeed, He searched it out.
As Job draws near a conclusion he acknowledges that wisdom and understanding are concealed from all living things. Even death and Destruction - those powers arrayed against God - cannot locate the source of wisdom and understanding.
However, God - here the Hebrew is ʾelōhîm. Later in vs 28 the word translated ‘Lord’ in our English translations is ʾā·ḏôn. SEE DISCUSSION UNDER VS 28 for more information).
God, ʾelōhîm, alone knows the path to wisdom, He alone knows its location (vs 23). In vs 24-27 Job describes God’s activities:
Job: An Introduction and Commentary 3. Interlude (28:1–28)
Only a few specimens of God’s wise ordering are given wind, water, rain, thunder—which, in all likelihood, are intended to comprise but one thing, the thunderstorm. We are close to some very ancient theology here,11 and we shall meet it again in chapter 37 and in the Lord’s speeches. Cf.
And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”
This is the only place in the entire book of Job where ʾā·ḏôn is used. Every other instance describing God the word ʾelōhîm is used.
God has declared where to find wisdom and how to live apart from evil. Compare this to Job 1:1
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.
Later Solomon will compose an entire book explaining this theme:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
What exactly is the ‘fear’ of the Lord? In the OT the idea of the ‘fear of the Lord’ is used to describe how Israel is to approach God - with reverence and respect due a king, a monarch; the phrase also describes personal piety - the act of worshiping God as an individual; and as seen in Job 1, the phrase can be used to describe a religious person.
The ‘fear of the Lord’ is an attitude and an act. It is a call to respect the power, the glory, the beauty and majesty of God (see Isaiah 6, Exodus 19, the last chapters of Ezekiel, Revelation 1, and multiple other passages.
It is also an act. To show ‘fear of the Lord’ is to approach Him as we would approach any person of authority and power. For example, if you ever find yourself in the presence of the President of the United States it is always appropriate to remain standing till he sits or indicates permission to sit.
“Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid…The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her conception of God until it is more worthy of Him….
A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God: Their Meaning in the Christian Life (Lincoln, Nebraska: Back to the Bible Broadcast, 1961), 7,9.
